The Middle of Nowhere
by IngaHerovitz
Summary: With four possibly go-free weeks ahead of him, Touya Akira would do anything for an opponent. However, he may get a bit more than he bargained for. No pairings.


Chapter 1: The Looming Horizon

Touya Akira was far from happy. In fact, he was so far from happy that if a passerby were to glance at the eleven-year-old's normally unreadable face, they would describe it as particularly _un_happy, or even angry. The reason for his unhappiness was the train that he was on, which was carrying him far away from his home, his family and, most importantly, his goban.

It just so happened that _both_ his parents had to go away, _no one_ who usually watched him was available and he was_ still_ considered too young to stay home on his own. Which was why Ogata-san was escorting him on a long train ride to the middle of nowhere, so he could stay for four weeks with grandparents he had never met, excluding the time when he was three months old.

His mother had tried to assure him that staying with her parents wouldn't really be all that bad, and he could even try to teach them go on the plastic foldable board he had brought with him. He would have brought an entire full-sized goban, but his mother had insisted that he needed room in his suitcase for clothes and other apparently necessary things.

Anyway, he didn't want to just _teach_ go, he wanted to _play_ go. He wanted to be challenged.

Touya tried to glare a hole through the window.

His only comfort was that there might be someone at the school he would be attending who played go, and maybe even a go club. He hadn't been able to find out, because the town where his grandparents lived was so far away from anything that he couldn't find _any_ information about the school, let alone whether it had a go club.

It wasn't that he was _really_ that far away from anything. Seeing as his grandparents did live in Japan, it was kind of hard to be far away from anything at all. As it was, he could always ask his grandfather to drive him the day-long car trip to the nearest relatively large town that might have a go salon, but part of him wondered if his grandparents even owned a car. From what his mother told him about her childhood, he wouldn't be surprised if everyone travelled around on foot or something.

He sighed deeply and closed his eyes, leaning against the window. This only earned him a slightly amused look from Ogata-san, who had been taunting him about his four mostly go-free weeks looming on the horizon. In a small, smothered part of Touya's brain, Touya wished that one day he could see Ogata-san faced with weeks of no go. With that guilty thought, Touya let the train lull him to sleep.

His grandparents picked him up at the station, presenting him with the first of probably many grandparent-ish gifts, a brand new bike. Touya was charming as always, accepting the gift – as well as the "oh look how much you've grown" fawning – graciously and courteously, as he always did. Though the appearance of the bike seemed to confirm his suspicions that he would not be travelling very far from town.

As for the town itself, it could probably be more accurately described as an ancient village.

Ogata-san patted Touya on the head with a big smile on his face.

"Good luck, Akira. Have fun."

Why Touya ever would have suspected he would receive some sort of comfort from Ogata-san was a mystery, but he was a bit surprised when the older pro simply got back on the train and continued on to one of his matches without properly saying goodbye. After all, Touya normally saw Ogata-san every week for the study group, and now he would be gone for four weeks!

Touya sighed and loaded his bags into the basket on the back of his new bike. It was really just luck that he knew how to ride a bike at all, and he was sincerely thankful for the fact that the first thing he did in this new place was not humiliating, such as falling off the bike.

He followed his grandparents down the dirt path that they for some reason seemed to think was a street. It would be a long four weeks.

Chapter 2: The Kid with the Bleached-blond Bangs

The first three days were awful. He had come on a Friday, so he would have to wait to officially meet his classmates, though he had certainly seen them whizzing by on their bikes. He wasn't too upset about not getting to know kids his own age, seeing as socializing with his peers wasn't exactly Touya's strongest point, but he wanted to know if _anyone_ played go. He had met plenty of his grandparents' friends, and even some extended family he didn't know he had, but none of them played go. In a way, it was very surprising, seeing as go was, in fact, mostly played by the elderly.

It wasn't so much that he _wasn't_ playing go. He had taught his grandparents, and so he played with them, but playing with absolute beginners wasn't going to be much fun for several weeks. He had to count on his schoolmates.

It was worse than he could've imagined. Not only did the school not have a go club, but no one even seemed to know what go was. That is, that's what they told him. After laughing and giving each other meaningful looks. Which seemed to mean they did know what go was, but they weren't telling him. But that seemed just too strange, and so Touya ignored the feeling.

The first class was so shocking that Touya almost forgot to worry about go. The class itself didn't seem to be in any order, on any specific subject, or even to be taught by a qualified teacher. Despite the fact that there seemed to only be seven children in the class, there was one absence, which the teacher seemed to ignore.

The second class of the day turned out to be taught by the same person, with the same students, in the same disorganized manner. It was in this class, though, that Touya met Shindou Hikaru for the very first time.

Halfway through the class, a kid with bleached-blond bangs stumbled, out of breath, into the classroom. In addition to the rather shocking appearance of his hair, though, the kid seemed to be covered in mud from the waist down. He didn't seem particularly out of breath, though the flushing of his face seemed to suggest that he had recently been running.

"What class is this?" The kid burst out, a worried expression on his face. "How late am I today?"

Most of the class started laughing. Only Touya, the teacher and some girl (Fujisaki?) stayed silent. The teacher waited till everyone quieted down, then addressed the newcomer.

"We are halfway through our second class, Shindou. Now why don't you explain to the class why you are late."

The kid, Shindou, looked a bit sheepish when he stuttered out, "I… fell into the river and had a hard time getting out. I'm sorry, sensei, I should have been more careful."

This brought on another round of laughs, this time with the joined insult of the teacher obviously trying not to start laughing himself. Only the girl who didn't laugh earlier (Touya was now pretty sure her name was Fujisaki) seemed concerned.

"Hikaru," she said, eyes wide, "you should walk on the other side of the street. You could have been hurt!"

"Yeah, yeah," said Shindou, lurching from the doorway to the seat between Touya and Fujisaki. He sat down with a bit of a squelching sound, dripping mud on the already-dirty floor.

Shindou took part in the class discussions only twice. Once when the teacher asked him to solve an arithmetic problem, which he got wrong, resulting in a lot of laughing and teasing, even though other people got some problems wrong too. The second time was when he corrected the teacher on the beginning of the Fujiwara family's monopoly on the regent positions of the ancient Japanese government. No one said anything, but it seemed like several people changed their notes to Shindou's answer.

Halfway through the class right before lunch, Shindou gave a little jerk and abruptly put his head down on the desk. No one paid him any notice. Touya gave Fujisaki a questioning glance, but she waved her hand dismissively at him. Five minutes later, Shindou raised his head from the desk and turned to Fujisaki, who handed him what appeared to be the class notes she had been taking.

By the time lunch started, Touya was thoroughly confused, and a little bit angry. He had never been a huge activist when it came to social justice, and when there was an anti-bullying campaign at his school back home, he had to skip it to attend his father's study session. Ironically, that action had earned him some bullying over the next few weeks. No, Touya wasn't the most active in that area, but he was smart enough to know that the entire class held Shindou Hikaru in the lowest esteem possible. They were rude and condescending. The teacher did nothing to stop it.

So, when lunch began, Touya sat down in the midst of his small group of classmates and asked the general group "So what's wrong with Shindou that makes him not worth your time?"

It was what they had been waiting for. They all began talking at once, but Touya raised a hand to silence them. Somehow, he'd always been good at silencing people. He pointed at some random kid. "You tell me."

The kid took a deep breath. Throughout his entire speech, Touya was more and more shocked at how narrow-minded his peers were. So what if Shindou Hikaru had epilepsy? So what if he was a little strange in the head? Touya had been called strange before by kids at his school who thought he was a social failure because of go. He _was_ a social failure because of go, but that was beside the point.

By the time the kid finished speaking, Touya was genuinely angry. He didn't want to really cause a scene, though, so he just picked up his lunch and walked over to where Shindou and Fujisaki were sitting. They looked up at him with questioning expressions.

"Sit with you?" he asked, too mad to really form complete sentences. They nodded silently.

"Why are you sitting with us?" asked Shindou. He seemed more fascinated by Touya than actually interested, as if Touya was some other species.

"Because everyone else is a loser." Touya said briefly. He was surprised by his own harsh judgment, but shook it off and resumed eating his lunch.

Fujisaki and Shindou glanced at each other and grinned. There was a moment of complete understanding between them, where they seemed to say "yes, we like this one," before they continued to discuss what appeared to Touya to be the court traditions of the Nobles of the Heian era.

Touya wasn't especially learned in this area of his country's history, but he attempted to participate. Shindou, on the other hand, seemed to know everything there was to know, and more besides.

"Where did you learn all this?" Touya asked, amazed.

"Sai told it to him." Said Fujisaki, a bit hesitantly. She was sitting across the table from Touya, and seemed to be giving him a specific look that was supposed to mean something, but Touya didn't quite know what it was supposed to mean.

Shindou's face lit up at the mention of Sai. He began to talk very quickly about the Fujiwara family and their importance to the growth of Japan. Touya didn't quite see this as being very relevant to his question, but his annoyance soon turned to concern when Shindou suddenly gave a little jerk and collapsed onto the table.

Fujisaki sighed and moved Shindou's head off of his lunch platter, wiping a bit of food from his forehead. "Don't worry," she said, "he does this all the time. You just have to give him a minute to wake up."

Touya nodded, thinking of his classmates' description of Shindou's epilepsy. "So, where did he learn all of that stuff?" he asked, "And who is Sai?"

"Sai is Hikaru's imaginary friend." Fujisaki replied. "Apparently, he's a ghost from the Heian period who lives in this block of stone near the river. Though it's not just a block of stone, it's a board of some sort. Some game Hikaru plays. Hikaru says that Sai used to teach it in the palace. Apparently, Sai taught him everything he knows. He's been visiting him since he was really young. I have no idea how he actually learned that stuff. I know Hikaru really well, and when he's not playing he's doing homework, and when he's not doing homework, he's drawing pictures of Sai. He says he wants to perfect the picture one day so I'll really know what Sai looks like."

"And I will perfect it!" Shindou declared, raising his head from the table. "I can show it to you too, um…" Shindou trailed off, leaving Touya to realize that since Shindou hadn't been in the morning classes, they had never been properly introduced.

"Touya." He said, extending his hand. "Touya Akira. Do you play go?"

Chapter 3: A Stone Goban

Most of what Fujisaki had said had gone unnoticed by Touya after she mentioned Shindou's game. Touya had made the connection between go and Shindou's game after Fujisaki had mentioned Sai teaching it in the palace. The little that Touya did know about the Heian period is that the Fujiwara family taught go to the Emperor. If his assumption was right, his weeks in exile may become more bearable.

Luckily for him, Shindou started bouncing with incredibly childish excitement. "Yes, go! He loves go! It's all he ever wants to do, do you play it, and will you play with him?"

Shindou's expression was so ecstatic that Touya had to fight down the urge to laugh, or maybe it was just his own hysterical relief. "Yes, I play go. Why don't you introduce me to Sai after school and I can play him then. I want to play you too, though. You play, don't you?" Touya had made the decision that the best way of dealing with Shindou's delusion of a ghost was to pretend that he actually existed. He had no idea if Shindou actually knew how to play go, or if he had just pretended that Sai loved it, but if he held such zeal for the game, it would be much more fun playing him, or even teaching him than it would be to play and teach his family members, who played just to appease his never ending need for go.

The day took forever to end. The classes seemed to drag on and on, covering the material they had _already_ learned that morning. Or at least, it seemed that way.

By the time school finally ended, Touya felt as though he could run all twenty miles to the nearest go salon. But he knew the river wasn't quite that far away. He could easily ride his bike there in a few minutes.

However, in order to actually play go by the river, Shindou had to be there. And as Touya soon discovered, Shindou did not own a bike, and so they had to walk. When he thought about it, it made sense. Shindou passed out completely without warning at random times throughout the day. If he were to ride a bike, it would be extremely dangerous. Come to think of it, Shindou had probably fallen off the road anyway that morning, causing him to arrive so late and in such bad shape.

And so, if simply for common courtesy, Touya walked his bike to the river. He had wondered why Fujisaki always looked so stressed out around Shindou, but he was starting to understand why. The boy had no consideration for his own safety. If they walked over a bridge, Shindou walked on the railing. If there was a hill to the side of the road, Shindou would walk as close to the edge as possible. In all of Touya's eleven years, he had never been more stressed. No game of go could match this anxiety. Was this what it was like to be a parent? Touya groaned inwardly when he remembered his parents telling him that he used to constantly attempt to run into the street as a toddler. He would have to apologize for that when he got home.

True to his worries, Shindou did fall off the bridge. Luckily, he fell not into the deep gulley with sharp rocks that they were crossing over, but instead he fell on top of Touya. Touya had never been so happy to be knocked down. _He didn't die!_ Touya thought ecstatically. But after that, he refused to let Shindou go anywhere near the edge of the road. That made Shindou get kind of mad, but he wasn't dead, so, who cared what Shindou thought.

By the time they actually reached the river, Touya was beginning to wonder if he would start graying at an early age. He had almost completely forgotten about the promised game of go, a shocking revelation that came only when he almost tripped over Shindou's goban into the river.

It was made of stone.

Touya stared. It was a _goban_ made of _stone_. Not only that, but the stone pieces seemed to have faded from their original colors, making them hard to distinguish. It would be like playing almost one-color go.

But all of that was okay, because it was a goban, and Touya could play go on it. Shindou was sitting to one side, talking animatedly to thin air.

"Sai, this is Touya. He came from far away for a few weeks, and he called the kids at school losers, and he plays go! And he wants to play with you!"

_Great_. Touya thought. _I forgot about the imaginary friend._ Touya had never dealt with imaginary friends before, having never had one himself, and so getting used to pretending Sai was there would be difficult. He would have to figure out how to do this quickly, so Shindou wouldn't get offended.

"Touya!" His thoughts were interrupted by Shindou jumping into his line of sight. "This is Fujiwara no Sai. He's a go master from the Heian period." Shindou pointed to thin air, the childish grin back on his face.

Touya sat in seiza across the goban, bowing to his unseen opponent. "It's nice to meet you, Fujiwara-san." He said, as if greeting one of his father's friends.

This sent Shindou into a fit of giggles. "You can't just call him Fujiwara-san! He's just Sai! Anyway, why did you say that, he was in the middle of telling you something."

Touya flinched. It hadn't even been five minutes and he'd already blown his cover. _Well,_ he thought, _I might as well tell him._

Clearing his throat, Touya announced, "Shindou, I hate to tell you this, but I can't actually see Sai. Only you can see him. So you're going to have to mediate between us so that we can communicate."

Shindou stared at him for a long time, then turned to the patch of space he called Sai and seemed to listen to something. His face broke out into a smile again. "I get it! Sai says that because he's a ghost, not everyone can see him. Actually, I'm the first person to see him since Torajiro lived here!"

Touya's head snapped up. That name seemed familiar. Where had he heard it.

Shindou snickered. "Sai thought you might know him. Sai taught him go, too. You probably know him better as Honinbo Shuusaku."

Whatever Touya was expecting, it wasn't that. Sai had taught Honinbo Shuusaku? That couldn't be right, Sai wasn't real. Shindou probably made it up. Though there was one way to test it. When in doubt, play go, as Touya always thought.

It was an odd set-up. Shindou refused to play him, claiming that Sai really needed to play more than he did. Apparently, go was all Sai lived for. And so, Touya had to face his opponent without having an actual opponent. Shindou sat to the side, proclaiming that he would place Sai's stones, as Sai couldn't touch them. Touya had difficulty with both the practically identical shade of the stones, as well as the unnatural sound they made on the stone goban in place of a wood one. But all of these cares completely vanished from his mind after the first few hands. Sai- or Shindou, since Sai wasn't real- was incredible. He was accustomed to one-color go, but this was unlike anything he had ever seen, excluding perhaps his father. Halfway through the game, Touya decided that if he ever did believe in ghosts, he would believe that this was indeed the ghost that taught Honinbo Shuusaku. He had studied enough of Shuusaku's kifu to recognize that Sai's style of play was almost exactly the same. When Touya resigned, Shindou told him in a quiet voice that Sai thought he was very good.

It was all Touya could do to not grab Shindou and demand to know how he learned to play like that. It was completely impossible. No one in this town played go. It was possible that Shindou had somehow gotten hold of some Shuusaku kifu, self-taught himself how to read them, and then learned go from those, but no one could become this good by just reading kifu. Then again, Shindou wasn't exactly a normal person. Could his apparent handicap actually give him such skill? Touya had heard of people who for some reason mastered certain skills more than they should be able to.

All he could get out in the end was "How long have you been playing?"

Shindou thought for a while. "Well, I've only been playing for six months or so, since I refused to let Sai teach me before then, but Sai's been playing for around a thousand years, though the years where he couldn't actually play anybody probably don't count, so it's actually much much less."

_Six months…_ Touya thought. It was too much. Too much skill for so little time.

His thoughts were interrupted again. "Sai wants to discuss the game. He was crying before, so he couldn't say anything, but he's calmed down now."

"Sai was crying?" Touya was confused.

"Well, sure. Go is what he lives for- well, er, lived for and died for, that is. He's been stuck playing me for such a long time it's probably a huge relief to play someone who actually knows the game a bit more. You should have seen him when I was younger and refused to play. He was so upset all the time." Shindou scrunched up his face in what seemed to be some kind of imitation. "'_Hikaruuuuu! Why won't you play go with me?'_" Shindou dodged an invisible slap and muttered something about how Sai owed him for bringing Touya.

The discussion of the game was almost as amazing as the game itself. Sai- Shindou, that is, didn't know about the komi, and his style of playing was very old. Touya managed to teach him some of the newer styles and how they changed the game. But other than that, Touya could feel himself getting stronger with almost every word that came out of Shindou's mouth. Shindou was a genius. A totally illogical, inexplicable genius.

They played several more games before Touya realized that he was very late getting home and his grandparents were no doubt very worried. He refused to let Shindou walk home by himself, though, since he was convinced that he would somehow die on the way back. Shindou had passed out several times in the middle of their games, and had one time very narrowly avoided hitting his head on the sharp corner of the board. As it was, he only passed out once on the way home. Completely at a lack of what to do, Touya picked him up- Shindou was rather small- and carried him for a while before Shindou woke up, slipped back down and continued walking. The whole time, he talked about how happy he was that Sai finally had someone to play. Touya had known that Shindou was a kind person, but he was struck by just how much he obviously cared about Sai. Though when he thought about it, other than Fujisaki, Sai was probably Shindou's only other friend.

Once they reached Shindou's house, Shindou insisted that Touya wait by the door so he could see one of the latest drawings of Sai. Shindou raced up the stairs, and it was all Touya could do to not find his parents and scream at them that it wasn't a good idea for Shindou to have to live in an upstairs bedroom. Didn't they know it was dangerous?

By the time Shindou finally came down the stairs, Touya was very anxious to get home. He had also realized that he had left his bike by the river, which he should have realized when he carried Shindou on the walk home. Saying a hasty goodbye, Touya took the drawing- Shindou said he could keep it- and raced back to the river. Once there, he unfolded the drawing and was shocked to find that Shindou was quite an artist as well. The man in the drawing was surprisingly realistic- albeit the fact that he was dressed as a Heian noble. The one thing that bothered Touya about the drawing was the fact that the man in the drawing was holding the stones correctly. If Shindou had learned go from kifu, he wouldn't know how to hold the stones. In fact, Shindou had placed the stones quite clumsily during their afternoon games.

Picking up his bike, Touya was just about to ride away when he thought he caught a glimpse of a figure sitting by the stone goban. A tall man with long hair and startling violet eyes, staring longingly at the empty goban, his hand attempting to pick up the stones he could not touch. The man in Shindou's drawing. Sai. But in a moment, he was gone. Touya shook his head. It must have been his imagination. But all the same, Sai's longing expression stayed with Touya all the way back home.

Chapter 4: The Difference Between Them

Over the next week, Touya and Shindou worked themselves into a pattern. Touya would meet Shindou on his way to school, and they would walk together. Because Touya walked with him, Shindou was almost never late. They would sit with Fujisaki at lunch and talk about Heian culture and drawing and go and Sai. Shindou could always talk about Sai. Then after school, they would walk to the river and Touya would play go games with Sai. He had asked Shindou whether his playing interfered with Sai's teaching Shindou, but Shindou assured him that both he and Sai enjoyed Touya playing more. Then they would walk back to Shindou's house, where Touya would leave Shindou at the front gate and head back to his grandparents' house.

It was surprising how quickly they got used to one another's presence. Touya had heard of those friends that just 'clicked' as the saying went, but he never had had one himself. It took him a long time to become close to a person his age- one of the reasons that he was not, in fact, close to anyone his age- but after just a few days, he felt like he had known Shindou all his life. Shindou was a very simple person, which Touya supposed helped. He was one of those people where the saying 'what you see is what you get' could be applied. If Shindou had something to say, he said it. No matter what. Even if it was something that no one wanted to hear. In a way, Touya relied on that. It was nice to have a friend who didn't have any secrets.

If there was one interesting character in the whole thing, it was Sai. Sai was similar to Shindou, but was obviously a completely different person. When Sai spoke, mostly to discuss their games, Shindou relayed his exact words, so he wouldn't accidentally leave something important out. Sai had a very different dialect than Shindou. Every once in a while, he would get sidetracked while talking about something and reminisce about some go game of his past. It didn't take Touya very long to realize that when Shindou had said that Sai died for go, he meant it literally. In fact, the stone goban they were playing on was supposed to be a marker of where the Fujiwara family had found the body of the young exile. Sai said that he had actually drowned a little farther up the river, but didn't really care where they put it.

Sai had a strange personality. He could either be a whining toddler, or a wise mentor. There was no in-between. Shindou had already told Touya that since he and Sai were already on first-name basis, Sai had started almost immediately calling Touya 'Akira'. Apparently after every game, Sai begged Touya for another game in the same whiny way he begged Shindou to play. Also according to Shindou, Sai often took advantage of Touya's inability to see him by hitting him on the head with his fan mid-game whenever Touya made a mistake.

Unfortunately, Touya didn't know that much about Shindou's condition. Nor did he know much about imaginary friends. He never had been one for psychology, and there had never been any reason for him to be interested in it. But now, he wondered. Was it really possible for Shindou to have invented a person as complicated as Sai? It was as if Shindou had a secondary personality that he had separated from himself.

It was unlike Touya to worry about such things. A person's go was all that mattered to him, that was all they were. But with Shindou… he wanted to know. He wanted to know who Sai really was and why he was there.

As it was, he spent little time with Shindou talking about things other than go. There were their lunches with Fujisaki, but Touya mostly let Shindou talk to Fujisaki by himself. He liked Fujisaki, but she scared him a little bit, mostly because she had cornered him after school one day and started crying, thanking him over and over for being Shindou's friend.

At the end of the first school week, Shindou told him that he absolutely had to come to his house the next day, since his mother made ramen on Saturdays. Touya had been vaguely aware that if Shindou cared about anything more than Sai playing go, it was ramen. He just hadn't really thought about it. The idea of spending the afternoon at Shindou's house alarmed him just a little bit. He'd have to deal with Shindou's parents for one thing, and it was doubtful that they were interested in go. Besides that, Shindou refused to play him personally. But in the end, he agreed to come.

As it turned out, Touya didn't really have to worry about Shindou's parents. They didn't say much, and didn't seem to be the right type of people to raise a high-energy, epileptic child. Even when Shindou managed to pass out face-first into his ramen bowl, halfway through explaining komi to his parents, it was Touya who moved his head to make sure he could breathe. He wasn't sure he quite liked Shindou's parents, though he did have the benefit of interacting for years with adults whom he liked on various levels. Personally, he thought he did a wonderful job of dealing with Ogata.

After dinner, Shindou went upstairs to get some stuff he wanted to show Touya. He would invite Touya upstairs, but apparently his room was too crowded for anybody else to come into it, so Touya sat awkwardly on the living room couch.

Shindou soon returned with blank and used paper, pencils, an old newspaper, a history book, a CD player complete with several CDs, a board game (not go), two stones from Sai's riverside goban and what looked to be several different books of manga.

"You read manga?" Asked Touya, at a loss of what else to say.

"You don't?" Countered Shindou.

"I could never get into them." Touya objected.

"Couldn't get into them?"

"They didn't interest me"

"They're all interesting!"

"I thought they were boring!"

"That's ridiculous!"

"They're not about go!" Touya finally exclaimed, exasperated. "I don't really do things not about go."

Shindou narrowed his eyes. "That," he said "is one of the saddest things I've ever heard. Even Sai does things not related to go. He was very interested in music and the arts."

That was an insult. Touya never thought he'd actually be offended by someone telling him he was obsessed with go, but Sai loved go more than anything else in the world. According to Shindou, Sai cried when he couldn't play go. So to be called even more narrow-minded than Sai was actually an insult.

Shindou glared at Touya some more. "Did you ever actually try to read a manga?"

Touya bit his lip. "Well… no, not exactly, but I read some summaries and they just didn't seem very interesting."

Shindou smacked his forehead, causing Touya to flinch and resist the urge to frantically ask if he was all right. "You take this and read it. You're going to enjoy it, that's an order. And while you read it, I'm going to draw you playing go, so that at least you can say that you played go while also reading manga."

It took all of Touya's concentration to not point out that just because someone drew something didn't mean it was happening, but then again, he was talking to the kid who had an imaginary friend who played go more advanced than most of the people Touya knew, so he decided not to say anything.

Shindou dropped a CD into the CD player and turned on some traditional court music- probably music that Sai had deemed close to Heian music- then sat down and started to draw. Without having anything else to really do, Touya opened the manga and began to read.

It was interesting, to be sure. Touya could understand why people devoted so much time to these things. Manga wasn't quite Touya's thing, though. He doubted he's get sucked in. After all, it might distract him from go.

"Touya, oi, pay attention." Shindou said thirty minutes later. "I'm finished with the drawing." Shindou handed him the piece of paper he had been working on.

It was without a doubt very skillfully drawn. Touya didn't exactly study himself in the mirror, but he could recognize that the drawing was detailed very accurately. The only surprising part was his expression. He had always assumed that he looked a bit like his father when he played go- the same serious, intimidating face. But this face looked more amused than intimidating. Did he really look like that?

"Sorry about the expression" Shindou said, seeming to read his mind. "I watch the game when you play Sai, and so I had to base your face off of what you looked like reading the manga."

They stared at one another for a moment before suddenly breaking out into laughter.

"Why are we laughing?" Touya said, gasping for air.

"No idea!" Shindou replied, laughing even harder.

By the time they had finished laughing, wiping tears from their eyes, Shindou was setting up the other board game. Touya glanced at the cover of the box- monopoly. He scowled at Shindou.

"I've heard of this game. People say it destroys friendships."

"You take what people say too seriously. The only reason they say that is because people get so into it that they get mad. You're going to be mad, because I'm going to make you go bankrupt."

"You most certainly will not!" Complained Touya, frantically trying to remember if he knew how to play monopoly.

By the time Shindou had discovered Touya did not, in fact, completely understand monopoly, they were already halfway through the game. From there, the game degraded into something other than monopoly, consisting of robberies, territorial wars and several acts of arson. They had gotten into so many shouting matches about which one of them had won the territorial wars that Shindou's mother ran into the room complaining about the noise, only to arrive just in time to watch Touya strike a match and set fire to one of Shindou's hotels.

They came to the conclusion that they should never play monopoly again.

As Touya got ready to leave, Shindou handed him the charred remains of Touya's houses and hotels. "I win."

"I hate you." Touya said.

"Hey, I knew you had a personality hidden in there somewhere!" Shindou said, grinning. "I should get a prize for drawing it out."

Touya turned up his nose and walked through the door. "I have no idea what you are talking about. I am an emotionless machine which only exists to play go."

"Yeah, yeah. See you on Monday."

Touya walked down the road, smiling to himself. Maybe Shindou was right, he should do things other than go. Though, destroying a game of monopoly wasn't exactly the type of thing he wanted to be interested in. He tried to keep himself from laughing when he thought of what his father would have said if he had seen the progression of the game.

Then his expression hardened. There was one thing he was sure of. That was who Shindou was. That happy if a little bit crazy child was Shindou Hikaru. And that left only one question- who was Sai?

Chapter 5: Seeing Sai

For Shindou Hikaru, Touya Akira was a shocking reminder that there were people other than Sai who were nice to him. Akari was nice, but she never wanted to meet Sai, and she didn't really want to learn go, either. But Touya had wanted to meet Sai. Touya had wanted to play go. And now that Touya had figured out that there was more to the world than go, he was even more fun to be around.

Which was why, on the day that Touya Akira had to go home early to help his grandmother with something, Shindou Hikaru sat across from Sai, absently placing his own stones, talking constantly about Touya Akira.

"You know, I think that we're his first friends. He honestly knows nothing about having a social life. I mean, no self-respecting friend would let him get away with never reading manga! He wasn't that into it, but he had to at least try. And you should have seen the monopoly game! That thing got seriously out of hand. Though he has to calm down, you know? He's way overprotective when it comes to my epilepsy. He totally freaks out any time I do anything remotely dangerous."

Sai smiled silently, pointing with his fan to a place on the board that completely destroyed Shindou's formation.

Shindou scowled at him. "You did that on purpose!"

"You either pay attention or you don't." Sai explained briefly. "If you're not going to play a decent game, then don't play."

It was a theme that Sai had been pushing in the recent days. He had noticed that Hikaru's game was changing. Before, he had played wildly, not only because he was a beginning player, but also because he only played for Sai. Now, he seemed to be gaining an actual interest in go. Sai attributed this change to the appearance of Akira, since his own obsession with the game did not seem to rub off on Hikaru.

Shindou pouted, then gave Sai an almost devilish smile. "Fine, I won't play you ever again!"

Sai's calm façade disappeared. "NOOOOO HIKARUUUUU PLAY GO WITH ME!" The ghost wailed, tears pouring down his cheeks.

Shindou rolled his eyes. "Oh calm down, you old drama queen. Of course I'll play go with you."

Sai sniffled, wiping his cheeks with his long white sleeve. "Promise?" He whimpered.

"Promise." Shindou said, nodding his head. "But anyway, what do you think of Touya? You've never said anything other than the fact that he's good."

Sai switched over from complaining three year old to wise old man in a few seconds. "Touya Akira…" he murmured, thoughtful. He looked at Shindou doubtfully. "Hikaru…" Sai considered for a moment whether to tell Shindou the truth about Touya. It would upset him, to be sure. Perhaps he should simply let the boy live in ignorance.

"What is it?" Shindou asked.

Sai took a deep breath. Or seemed to, at least. He supposed that the truth was the best option in this situation. It may hurt Hikaru, but that would mean that it would hurt him less than it would if he waited till Hikaru discovered the truth himself. "Hikaru, you know that Touya doesn't believe I exist, right? He thinks you made me up. It's a logical conclusion to come to. After all, why would I exist? The only proof you have of me is my go, and all that does is probably confuse him."

The only thing that could possibly be said to describe Shindou's reaction is that he wilted. After so much excitement, he was getting hit in the face with the reality of the situation. Touya thought he was crazy. Touya was just like everyone else.

If it were not for Sai, that would have been the end of Shindou and Touya's friendship. Shindou would have begun completely ignoring Touya, leaving him to deal with frustrated confusion, wondering what he had done wrong. But luckily for Touya and his growing understanding of a social life, Sai was not a figment of Shindou's imagination. And Sai, who had helped Torajiro through many friendships- successful or otherwise- knew how to help Shindou's newfound disappointment.

As he comforted the younger child, Sai thought he felt a slight breeze. It must have been his imagination, though. As a ghost, the wind did not touch him. Even in the worst storms, he was untouched. Though often, Sai longed to feel the wind so much that he pretended that he could. He put it down to his imagination.

Touya knew that there was something different when he went to play go with Shindou/Sai that day. Shindou was in a quieter mood, and didn't participate in the post-game discussion as himself in addition to Sai, as he usually did.

Touya was about to ask Shindou about this new development when he was distracted by the discussion.

"You should not have placed this stone," Sai said, tapping the offending stone with his fan. "Instead you should have protected this formation."

"Really?" Touya objected. "I was using that to prepare for this move here." He pointed to another one of his stones.

All three of them froze. Shindou turned to face Touya.

"I didn't tell you he said that." He said.

Touya was very intently looking down at the goban. Very slowly, he raised his eyes to look across at his normally non-existent opponent. His eyes were met with the piercing violet gaze of the ghost of Fujiwara no Sai.

He looked almost exactly like Shindou's drawing. The long robes fell in perfect folds across the ground, and the fan covered part of his face, leaving only his eyes visible.

Touya was noticeably trembling. This could not be happening. Sai wasn't real. Sai was part of Shindou's overactive imagination. Ghosts weren't real. Even if they were, they didn't sit by the river and play go. Ghosts didn't teach Honinbo Shuusaku how to play go.

Touya scrambled to his feet, backing away from the obvious hallucination.

"That… you're not… you can't…" he stuttered. Then turned his back and ran. He ran all the way home. He did not stop when Shindou called after him, he didn't stop when he almost got run over by a bicycle, nor did he stop when he reached the front gate of his grandparents' house. He ran all the way to his room, where he collapsed on his bed, cradling his head between his hands.

Chapter 6: Emergency Phone

Touya Meijin was in the middle of the discussion of a very important go game when the emergency cell phone rang. It was the only cell phone he carried with him everywhere. It did not matter if he was in a no cell phone zone, such as a theater. It did not matter if he was travelling and could not stop. It didn't even matter if he was in the tie-breaking final match of competing for a title. The emergency cell phone was charged and active, the volume turned up as high as it could go.

Luckily, the emergency cell phone had yet to be used. There had been no family emergencies so far that he had not been already present for. It was because of this that when the emergency cell phone rang in the middle of the very important post-game discussion, the Meijin did not immediately answer it, as he assumed the phone belonged to someone else. It was only when everyone checked his or her pockets in a half-embarrassed way, then turned to look at him, that he realized what must have happened.

Saying some things that he would not care to have repeated, the Meijin rushed out of the room and answered the phone.

"Father!" The frantic voice on the other end said. The Meijin caught his breath- Akira _never_ talked like that.

"Akira?" He asked hesitantly, dreading the worst. This was the first time he had talked to his son in at least two weeks, and if he was this upset after that amount of time, who knew if he would make it through all four? At least he knew that Akira was not dead, since he was calling him. Ogata walked into the hall, looking concerned.

"Father, I think I'm going crazy! I didn't know insanity was contagious! If I had known that, I never would have spent any time with him! It would have been cruel for both of us, but at least I wouldn't have gone mad! It's a wonder _she_ hasn't gone mad yet! I've thought about it and it's the only explanation. There's absolutely _no way_ that he was actually there. There's no logical explanation. There's no logical explanation for his go, either! Maybe it's a demon or something! What if he sold his soul to the devil or something! That might make sense! But it doesn't make sense! Nothing makes sense! I've gone crazy and it's all his fault somehow and I should have known after the monopoly game that I was going crazy but I didn't realize and so now this happened and I don't know what to do I could check myself into a mental facility but that wouldn't help because everyone else would go crazy as well and I don't know what to do what do I do!" Akira seemed to be close to hyperventilating.

The Meijin took a minute to respond. Nothing that he had just heard had made sense to him, mostly because Akira was playing a nasty game of pronouns. "Akira." He finally got out. "I need you to calm down. Stop talking so quickly. Take some deep breaths, go back to the beginning, tell me what happened." He glanced up at Ogata, who was now looking very concerned.

'_Is he OK?'_ Ogata mouthed.

'_I don't know.'_ The Meijin mouthed back.

On the other line, Akira seemed to have calmed down a bit. "There's this kid named Shindou. Shindou Hikaru. And he's crazy."

"Why is he crazy?" The Meijin asked.

"He's got epilepsy or something, and that messed him up, I think. He has an imaginary friend."

"Many children have imaginary friends. How old is he?"

"He's my age. And it's not just an imaginary friend. It's an imaginary friend with a really complicated personality, background, skill set and knowledge. He knows stuff that isn't possible. And his go is incredible."

"And what happened?"

Akira ignored the question. "Well, Shindou's imaginary friend's name is Sai, and apparently, he's a ghost from the Heian period, who taught go. He's connected to this stone goban by the river. Shindou said that as a ghost Sai taught Torajiro, though we know him as Honinbo Shuusaku."

"That is very strange, but _what happened?_"

Akira took a deep breath. "Today, I saw Sai."

There was a pause. "You what?"

"I saw Sai!" Akira gasped out, holding back frantic tears. "I interacted with him. He said something, something about a move I had made in my game with him, and I heard him, and I looked up, and I saw him. I saw somebody else's imaginary friend!" Akira was actually crying now. "He was never there before! He was just empty space, and Shindou would tell me what he would say. And Shindou would place the stones because apparently Sai couldn't touch them!"

"You think you're crazy because you can see someone else's imaginary friend." The Meijin said blankly, seeing his confused look mirrored in Ogata's face.

"Yes! Is insanity contagious?"

"No." The Meijin said simply, then covered the phone with his hand so he could confirm his answer with Ogata. He didn't think insanity was contagious, but you never knew.

"Then what happened?"

"I don't know. Have you entertained the possibility that perhaps this Sai person is, in fact, who he claims to be?"

"_Why would I ever think that?_" Akira practically screamed into the phone.

Even Ogata had heard that. "He really sounds upset, doesn't he?" He said, slipping back into his calm and semi-sarcastic tone of voice.

The Meijin was at a loss. What did a father do in these situations? What could he say to reassure his son? None of the other parents he knew had ever complained about being in this situation.

It was then that he remembered something his own father had told him once. It was technically supposed to be about leadership, but being a father basically was being a leader. His father had said, _"Kouyo, when you are at a loss of what to say, make something up. But when you say it to someone, say it confidently enough so that they believe that you know what you're talking about."_

The Meijin knew that his father had not been known as the wisest man in the world. He also knew that his father did not, in fact, make up those words. He had decided to never take much of his father's advice, but at this point, it was all he had.

He cleared his throat.

"Akira." He said in the commanding tone he used when his son made an obvious mistake in their latest go game. "This is what I want you to do. I want you to forget that you think Shindou is crazy. I want you to accept this Sai for who he says he is. Sometimes, when we are unable to completely understand something, we must simply accept it for what it seems to be. As far as I can tell, knowing and speaking to Sai is not putting you in immediate danger. Because of this, I see no negative consequences of you continuing to be his and Shindou's friend. Accept the impossible, and move on."

With that, he hung up the phone. Perhaps it was a little wordier than his normal pieces of advice, but Akira was eleven, and although he was mature for eleven, he wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

Ogata, who understood the Meijin far better than Kouyo felt comfortable with, was smirking.

"That," He said, "was the worst piece of advice I have ever heard. You totally made it up, as well. What did you just tell him to accept?"

Kouyo looked at the phone, horrified. "I just told him to believe that he just saw the ghost of a Heian era go teacher who then died and taught go to Honinbo Shuusaku."

Ogata stared at him. "You told him _what_?"

Chapter 7: The Last Few Weeks

It took Touya a surprisingly short amount of time to accept Sai. Ever-trusting, he had taken his father's word as truth, and that very day had returned to the river. Shindou was sitting across from Sai, who was still visible.

Touya sank into seiza in Shindou's normal, in-between position.

"I'm done freaking out now." He said hesitantly. Neither player paid him any attention, and so he turned his own attention to the board before him. It would be the first time he would see Shindou play.

Though Shindou was not an amazing player, he was extremely advanced for someone who had only been playing for six months. Even Touya himself had taken at least eighteen months to get to this level of play, and age difference aside, they had had, in effect, the same type of training. When Touya thought about it, he realized that his own go must have strengthened tremendously in just the last two weeks. And with two more whole weeks stretching about before him, he was confident that he would rise quite noticeably in his skill level.

Now believing in Sai, Touya felt that it was necessary to re-introduce himself to the man he now knew existed. Unfortunately, this earned him a whack on the head from Sai's fan- which he could now feel.

"There's no need for that. Just play go with me!" The ghost had complained.

In time, Touya became accustomed to Sai's presence. Touya now demanded that Shindou play at least one game per day with Sai, and they became an unnatural trio of friends. Despite this, it often seemed that Touya was third-wheeling on Shindou and Sai's friendship, which seemed to be unnaturally deep. Sometimes, Touya thought that Shindou responded to Sai's words a little too quickly. As if he knew what he was going to say before he actually said it.

Although Touya was now well accustomed to Shindou's epilepsy, his familiarity with it did not dampen the constant stress that he felt whenever Shindou did something unnecessarily dangerous. He was still convinced that his hair would turn gray prematurely from this constant anxiety. Carrying Shindou after one of his frequent fits had become completely normal, as well. The movement of catching him mid-fall had become quite fluid by this time, and he did it with obvious ease. Judging by how increasingly easy it was becoming to carry him, Touya was physically becoming much stronger as well.

It took another full week for Touya to convince Shindou to play a game of go with him. The only reason he managed to convince him was because Shindou had come over to Touya's grandparents' house for dinner- only on the condition that they have ramen.

With no Sai for Shindou to redirect Touya's go obsession onto, it was relatively simple for Touya to convince him to play a game against him. The most eventful part of the game was probably when Shindou discovered that the stones were supposed to be different colors.

"You mean you don't usually have to keep track of them?" He had asked, awestruck.

"Nope," Touya had replied, "all you have to do is concentrate on the game itself. It's a bit simpler that way."

Once the game had finished, Touya spent a long time reviewing it. It had become habit to review that games played that day, and that game was particularly interesting. Shindou's style had come from only playing Sai. Shindou expected there to be deeper traps than even Touya could plan, and so his style wouldn't be very effective against lower-level players. It was too defensive.

For the first time, the thought crossed Touya's mind that if Shindou were to come to Tokyo with him, his go would become exponentially better. Even now, Shindou was close to pro level. With time, he would become strong enough to become Touya's rival.

It was a subject that Touya tried to ignore. Many people had wondered why he had yet to take the pro exam, and perhaps this was why. With such a lack of skilled young players, Touya would be completely alone. He would have no rival his age. He would never admit this reason, though. He couldn't tell people that he didn't want to go pro because he would be lonely.

But with Shindou, that might change. If he could somehow introduce Shindou to the world of the pros, he might have a chance at a rival. But Shindou would never leave Sai. Touya knew that. And with his epilepsy, such a big city would be dangerous. There were so many complications. But the more he thought about it, the more Touya knew that he had to introduce Shindou to the pro world. The only question was- how?

Chapter 8: A Rival's Challenge

As his four weeks dwindled to only a few days, Touya was no closer to an answer than he had been that night. He had not yet brought the matter up with Shindou, and it finally came to the point where he absolutely had to address it, for fear of never being able to address it at all.

Luckily, he didn't have to be the one to begin the conversation, as the day before he left for home, Shindou asked him what he would be doing when he returned to Tokyo. He seemed quite sad when he said it, and it suddenly occurred to Touya that Shindou would miss him quite a bit when he left. It also occurred to him that he would miss Shindou, as well.

He seized the opportunity. "Well, I actually wanted to ask you if you had any interest in coming to visit me some time." Perhaps a little bit non-sequitor, but close enough to the original subject to not seem that strange.

Shindou looked shocked. "Me? Come to Tokyo? That's ridiculous! I'd get lost! I've never been out of town, much less anywhere near a big city. You worry too much about my safety, but I'd probably die in the first few days." His expression changed to look almost wistful. "It would be fun, though. I could meet your friends, and play go, and then we could play go, and then I could tell Sai all about it." He seemed to realize something, and looked a little sad. "Oh, but I couldn't go! I can't leave Sai by himself!"

Touya was pleased. He had been well aware that Shindou had caught on to his and Sai's obsession with go in the last few weeks. This would also help with his plan to bring Shindou to Tokyo, since with a growing obsession, it wouldn't be long before Shindou sought after other opponents. Touya had known from the beginning that Sai was barely able to conceal his own frantic desire for opponents, and part of him wondered how Sai was able to stand only playing the two of them over the course of so many years. But Shindou's argument was a good one. He wouldn't do very well in the city, and leaving Sai to sit alone and without go was almost unthinkable.

Surprisingly enough, it was Sai himself who fought against Shindou.

"Idiot!" He yelled, hitting Shindou with his fan. "You expect to sit here and waste your talent? Keep moving forward! You can still learn from me, but I will not have you tie yourself here just because you think you exist for my sake. You are very skilled in go. What Akira is offering you is a chance to use that skill. Chase after him! Chase after the hand of god!"

It was not the first time Touya had heard Sai mention the hand of god. He knew that Sai wanted to achieve the hand of god- a trait he shared with both Touya and Touya's father. Touya knew he was still far away from reaching that goal, but he hadn't known that Sai also wanted Hikaru to chase it.

His thoughts were interrupted by Shindou, who was yelling.

"You just want me to leave you here? That's stupid! Who will play go with you? I'm not going to abandon you, no matter what. I'm not going to let you be ignored and alone."

Shindou seemed about to cry, and promptly turned away and ran down the road. He didn't make it very far, though, before he collapsed. Touya ran over to make sure he was all right. He was surprised, though, when he turned back and saw that Sai was crying. Not the normal, wailing complaint that appeared when he couldn't play go, but genuine, heartbroken tears.

"Wha-?" Touya began, confused. He had known that Shindou wasn't explicitly talking about Sai when he had talked about being ignored and alone. It had never occurred to Touya that the treatment Shindou received from his classmates was probably very hurtful. He was suddenly angry.

"I'm holding him back." Sai said suddenly, looking sadly at Hikaru, who was still unconscious. "He shouldn't have to stay."

The next day, when Touya had to leave, there was no mention of what had happened. There were many farewells, much advice from Sai, thanks from Fujisaki, and, though they all would have denied it, quite a few tears. Touya said goodbye to his grandparents separately, and they accompanied him to the train station. When they arrived, Touya was almost surprised to see Shindou there, but not quite.

"You should have called so I could walk you to the station." Touya said jokingly.

Shindou rolled his eyes. "Yes, because I have no idea how I managed to survive without you all these years."

There was a moment of silence, in which Touya wondered whether he should ask Shindou once again to come to Tokyo.

Finally, when the train came, Shindou lightly punched Touya on the shoulder. "Come back to visit me again sometime. I'm sure Sai would appreciate the break from my terrible skills."

"Yeah." Touya said, at a loss of what else he could say.

As the train pulled away, though, and Touya was waving from the window, he suddenly had to speak. "Shindou!" he yelled back, as the blond-banged boy was about to turn away. Shindou turned back towards him. "Come after me!"

And with that, Shindou's shocked expression slipped out from his view.

Once Touya returned home, he sank into a sort of silence. His parents worried a little bit, but they were ever so slightly happy about it, since it meant that Touya actually had a friend his own age that he would miss.

Touya refused to show his father any of Sai's games. It would be too much for his father to believe. It had been on his father's advice for Touya to accept Sai, but he still wanted to keep the games to himself. He replayed them, alone in his room. Even without seeing the games, though, it was clear to everyone that Touya had improved dramatically over those four weeks.

He wondered quite often whether Shindou would ever consider his final challenge, or even if he would ever see Shindou again. He decided that if he ever did, it would probably be far in the future.

However, unbeknownst to anyone, Shindou arrived in Tokyo alone three weeks later.

Chapter 9: The Appearance of Shindou Hikaru

In all of his years as a driver, Ogata had never come close to an accident. It was a record he was very proud of, especially as he was a city driver. Because he wanted to keep this record, he drove very carefully. It was only because of this over-cautious driving that Ogata did not kill Shindou Hikaru as he jaywalked across the street, just around a blind corner.

It was a miracle that Ogata saw him at all. Ogata jammed on the breaks, frantically stopping the car. He saw a terrified face, ringed by blond bangs, which promptly dropped out of view. Ogata was sure he had hit him. He saw frozen in the car for a short moment, then flung open the door and ran to the front of the car.

"Are you alright? Did I hit you?" He asked frantically, hoping for an answer. When he reached the front of his car, he had a moment of panic when he saw the kid lying motionless on the ground. Sure that he had killed the boy, he looked around for the kids parents, or perhaps a policeman. Someone who could help.

However, with a faint moan, the kid pulled himself to a sitting position, rubbing his head. Then, terrified, he ran his hands over a large package that he was carrying. Reassured that it was still safe, he looked up at Ogata.

"Hello," he said absently, standing up. He glanced at the car and then at Ogata's frightened face. "Oh don't worry, you didn't hit me, I just passed out. I do that."

The boy had a sad expression on his face, and Ogata noticed that he looked as if he had been crying quite recently. What really shocked Ogata was the boy's next question.

"Do you know where Touya Akira lives? I'm trying to find him."

Too surprised to really think about what he was saying, Ogata stammered out "Yes, I'm going to his house now."

"Great!" The kid replied, looking a little more cheerful. "Can I go with you?"

Ogata suddenly came to the conclusion that the boy in front of him had hit his head rather hard on the pavement. At a loss of what else to do, he let the kid into the car and continued on to Touya Meijin's study group.

Touya was reviewing another one of Sai's games when Shindou Hikaru arrived at his house. He came downstairs when his father called him, thinking that he ought to attend the study group after staying away from it for so long.

His father met him at the bottom of the stairs.

"Akira, Ogata almost killed somebody in his car today. Some kid, he's about your age." He began, and then quickly cut Touya off, as he was about to interrupt, "We don't think he's hurt, but he keeps asking to see you. He's in the kitchen."

There was one person fitting the description of 'your age' that Touya had ever really known. Which is why he wasn't too surprised to see Shindou Hikaru sitting at his kitchen table, looking around him nervously at all the people gathered in the room.

"Shindou!" Touya shouted. "_What_ in the _world_ are you doing here, and how did you almost die and why didn't you call and where are you staying?" He took a breath. "And _please_ tell me you didn't come here by yourself."

Shindou looked extremely guilty as he replied, "I walked in front of someone's car and then passed out and I didn't call because coming here was very sudden and I'm not staying anywhere and yes, I came all by myself."

Ogata made the situation worse by adding that Shindou had jaywalked in front of his car around a blind corner.

Touya was silent for a long moment while he stared in horror at Shindou. He then erupted into a – rather long – rant about how Shindou didn't have any consideration for his own safety. He yelled about travelling on the train alone and he yelled about not calling ahead and he yelled about lodging plans ("What if we had been away? What would you have done then? What if you couldn't find us?) and he yelled most of all about crossing the street in quite possibly the most dangerous way possible. Halfway through his little fit Shindou put his head down on the table, using his arms as a sort of cushion, and sighed deeply. Touya then realized that he was acting and speaking exactly like his mother did when he had done something wrong, but he was too mad to care. Following this maternal inspiration, he ended his rant by crossing his arms, looking down at Shindou expectantly and saying "and so, you are inconsiderate and irresponsible and I would like to hear what you have to say for yourself."

By this time Touya had been talking for several minutes, and several of the adults- Ogata included- had had to leave the room because they were laughing.

Shindou sighed again, then glanced at Touya over his elbow and muttered something.

"What was that?" Touya demanded.

Shindou raised his head higher. "I said at least I've got a fashion sense." He glanced disapprovingly at Touya's pink and blue argyle cardigan.

Several more of the adults had to leave. Ogata, who had re-entered the room, snorted loudly, said something about needing a glass of water, then left the room again.

"That doesn't have anything to do with it!" Touya shouted, slightly offended. He knew he didn't have the greatest fashion sense in the world, but he didn't have to be reminded of it. Looking for a reason to change the subject, his eyes landed on a rather bulky package sitting on the table in front of Shindou that he hadn't seen before. It looked as if someone had wrapped a sheet around something rather large. "And what's that?" He asked, pointing to it.

At that question, Shindou switched from the slightly amused expression he had had after his fashion jab to an incredibly sad, almost pained look. "It's better that you see it." He said, and pulled the sheet away.

Sitting on Touya's kitchen table, two legs cracked halfway through, chipped and scratched all over, was Sai's stone goban.

Chapter 10: The Mourning of Sai

Touya made some sort of sound, somewhere between a cry and a yelp of pain. He and Shindou spent several long seconds simply staring at the sight in front of them.

"How…?" Touya managed to get out after a while.

"There was a storm, a big storm." Shindou began. Touya remembered hearing that there had been a storm near his grandparents, but he hadn't thought much of it. Shindou continued. "Some trees got knocked over, and one of them hit it and…" He gestured towards the goban, "that happened." Shindou's voice cracked and a tear traced down his cheek. "He's gone, Touya. I watched it happen. I ran from school to make sure he was OK when the trees started to fall over, and when I got there there were branches everywhere and he was yelling at this tree that was rolling towards the goban and then it hit it and there was this bright light and he was just gone."

Shindou was openly crying now, and even Touya could feel tears welling up in his own eyes. "I was so stupid, I ran to try and keep it from falling in the river and then I got knocked into the river with it and kept thinking about how I would definitely die if I passed out while I was there and for some reason I decided that it wouldn't be too bad to die because then I'd see him again, and I probably would have drown if Akari hadn't seen me run out of school and gotten the teachers to go find me. They managed to get me out of the water, but I didn't know what to do without Sai so I just kept wondering what to do until I remembered what you said and so last night I snuck out and got on a train to Tokyo. And that's how I ended up here."

At this point, Touya Meijin stepped into the conversation. "You snuck out? So your parents don't know where you are."

Shindou hung his head. "They probably wouldn't have let me come."

The Meijin's expression darkened. "Tell me your phone number, we need to let them know that you are safe." He led Shindou out of the room.

That left Touya standing in the now-silent kitchen, surrounded by the members of his father's study session. Nobody knew exactly what had just happened between the two boys, or why the broken goban had such a dramatic effect on them. As far as they could tell, it was just a goban made of stone. There was no significance to it, though any goban breaking was a sad thing.

Ogata stepped back into the room, looking questioningly between the goban on the table and Touya, who looked like he was about to cry. He had a sudden moment of understanding, and went to stand beside Touya.

"Is that…Sai's goban?" Ogata asked hesitantly. The Meijin had told him a little bit about what Touya had told him, and he seemed to remember that a stone goban fit somewhere into the equation.

Touya nodded slowly, then stepped forward. He ran his fingers over the side of the goban, nearly cutting the tip of his finger.

Suddenly, he remembered the last thing that Sai had said in his presence. _"I'm holding him back. He shouldn't have to stay."_ Was this what Sai meant? Did the storm happen so that Shindou could come to Tokyo, no longer held down by Sai's presence? Was this, by extent, what Touya himself had wanted?

Unable to hold the tears back any longer, he fled back upstairs, slamming the door to his room.

Touya and Shindou spent three days in complete mourning for the loss of Sai. They sat staring blankly at the wall, sometimes attempting to begin a game of go, but always abandoning it a little while later.

It was thanks to Touya Meijin that Shindou hadn't been immediately sent back home. Touya would never know exactly how or why his father convinced Shindou's parents to let Shindou stay. All he knew is that when his father came back from calling Shindou's parents, he came with the news that Shindou had permission to stay with them for several weeks.

On the fourth day, Touya Meijin decided that the two boys needed something to cheer them up. He understood that they were mourning, and although he did not personally believe in the existence of the person they were mourning, he allowed them to carry on interrupted. But enough was enough, and he was tired of seeing his son look so sad.

His solution to their sadness was to insist that they go to the Go Institute. It would be Shindou's first visit, and if the Meijin was correct, the young boy would take great joy in meeting some of the Insei.

The only problem with his plan was that, due to the two boys spending most of their time upstairs, or simply sitting somewhere random in the house, the Meijin had yet to witness one of Shindou's epilepsy attacks. In fact, he had forgotten completely about the boy's condition.

As luck would have it, Shindou managed to pass out at the one time that Touya was not standing next to him. They had taken the train, and in the confusion of the over-crowded cars, Touya had somehow managed to get separated from Shindou and his father. He exited the train out of a different door, and so was not there when Shindou walked onto the platform and proceeded to fall flat on his face in the middle of the Tokyo rush-hour foot traffic.

Somehow, the Meijin managed to clear some space around the unconscious boy. A few passer-by stopped to help and, as can happen in large crowds, some of them had medical experience. By the time Touya found them, the Meijin had a dermatologist, a freshman medical student, an over-enthusiastic teenager who had just learned CPR, and an ER nurse all crowding around Shindou Hikaru.

Touya rolled his eyes.

Tapping his father on the shoulder, he pushed past him to his unresponsive friend. He waved off the ER nurse, who was taking Shindou's pulse.

"It's alright," he said calmly. "He does that." Touya took a moment to tell all the people gathered around that this was completely natural to Shindou's epileptic condition. The ER nurse had just mentioned that it didn't look too much like epilepsy to him when Shindou sat up, rubbing his head.

"That hurts a lot more than it does on grass." He noted, scowling. He seemed to notice all the people around him, and blushed. "It's Ok, I'm not going to die."

The ER nurse still looked suspicious. "What type of epilepsy do you have?"

Shindou's blush deepened. "Oh, we don't actually know. In reality, we never got it checked by a doctor or anything, but Akari said it was similar to what this kid had in this book she read and what he had was called epilepsy so we just kind of called it that."

Touya really did not have the energy to get upset over that, so he stored the comment away in the mental file that he called "Things to yell at Shindou about sometime in the future."

They continued.

The little group managed to reach the Go Institute without any further issues. However, Touya did not let Shindou out of his sight anymore. This proved to be rather difficult when, overcome with excitement, Shindou insisted on running all around every inch of the Go institute. By the time they reached the third floor, two hours had gone by. The Meijin had stayed to discuss the upcoming Honinbou qualifying matches.

Eventually, they reached the Insei room.

"It's not just Insei who play in here." Touya whispered to Shindou as they peered in. "Pros play in this room too. That's during the week, though."

Shindou looked awed. The Insei were about his and Touya's age, some even younger, and they were all playing go with expressions of rapt concentration. Shindou stepped into the room, sinking down to watch the game. Sai had taught him seiza years before, but he had never really used it until today. It was uncomfortable, but it seemed a crime to sit any other way in this room- this amazing room- where go was played.

The game was between an older boy- maybe fifteen- with longish dark hair. His opponent was a boy about Shindou's age, with brown hair that seemed to go everywhere. Their game was just about finished, and as the younger boy bowed in resignation, they began to discuss.

"I shouldn't have gone here." The younger kid said immediately, pointing to a stone in the upper left corner.

However, the older boy had noticed Shindou. "Waya, stop being rude." He turned to Shindou. "Are you a new Insei?"

Shindou blushed. "Oh, no, I'm just watching." He turned to Touya, who was sitting down next to him. "That's OK, right?"

"Of course it is." Touya replied. All the same, he turned to the Insei, who were staring at him, shocked. The one called Waya seemed quite irritated. "Do you two mind?"

"Of course not." The older kid said before Waya could interject. "I'm Isumi. That's Waya."

They exchanged greetings.

Shindou had been staring at the game before him. He pointed to a formation in the center of the board. "How did that happen? That's a rather strange shape."

Waya smirked. "That was my doing. I managed to confuse him enough to take control of the center."

"But you still lost." Shindou noted, bringing on another scowl from Waya.

They discussed the game together. Touya said a few things, but, sensing that Waya didn't exactly welcome him, stayed mostly out of the conversation. He needn't have worried, though, because by the end of the discussion the two boys were so fascinated by Shindou's extensive knowledge that Waya almost complete forgot about Touya's presence. As an older pro came into the room to announce lunch, Isumi animatedly invited them to join him and Waya for lunch. Shindou agreed, practically pulling Touya out the door. They met Touya Meijin right outside. Shindou brushed past him with Touya, Waya and Isumi in tow, telling the Meijin they'd be back after lunch.

It was with great fear that Touya realized that Shindou intended to take the stairs down to the first floor.

"Not the stairs, not the stairs!" He yelled frantically, grabbing Shindou by the shirtsleeve.

"Come on, Touya, I have to go on the stairs sometime." His friend complained, grinning.

Sometimes Touya wondered if Shindou did things solely for the purpose of freaking him out.

They made it down three flights of stairs before Shindou passed out. He had been telling Waya and Isumi about his hometown, and how he was new to Tokyo, and that he had learned go from a friend (which was the story they had decided to tell people for the sake of being considered sane) when he jerked forward and fell.

He would have fallen all the way down the stairs and been seriously injured if Touya hadn't caught him. Swinging Shindou into his arms, Touya feigned calmness as he continued down the stairs. He looked back at Waya and Isumi, who both seemed shocked.

"It's Ok, he does that." Touya said, for the second time that day.

Chapter 11: A Reasonable Excuse

The next few days were reasonably pleasant. In the excitement of making new friends of Waya and Isumi, as well as being able to watch and play so much go, Shindou seemed to have almost forgotten the pain of losing Sai. Waya and Isumi had pressed Shindou quite hard as to Sai's identity after they played their first game together, but Isumi eventually noticed that the subject was rather touchy, and they successfully avoided the topic. Touya was only glad that Waya and Isumi didn't know that Shindou had barely been playing for eight months. That would have truly led to some questions.

Touya was a part of the friendship, in a way. It was more as if he was being forced into the group by Shindou- rather effectively, it might be said, as Shindou was rather good at forcing people to deal with other people. Touya might have been a natural part of the group if it wasn't for the fact that for some reason Waya detested Touya, despite the fact that they had never met. Touya had some suspicions- most of them go-related, but he didn't want Shindou to worry and, as his friend seemed to have not yet noticed the animosity, he decided to keep it to himself.

On the contrary, however, Shindou had noticed. In fact, Shindou noticed quite a few things that no one else noticed. He knew that Waya hated Touya, and he knew it was because of Touya's skill in go. He knew that Isumi could barely keep Waya from grilling Shindou repeatedly about Sai. He knew that, though Touya seemed uncomfortable around Waya and Isumi, he still appreciated being included. Shindou had thought from the first time meeting Touya that this "city kid" probably had a huge social life with lots of friends, but now that he was actually in Tokyo, he realized that Touya was actually quite a lonely person. Shindou also knew that though he himself seemed to be recovering from Sai's death/disappearance, he was still mourning the loss of his friend.

It was this last thing that worried Shindou the most. He had met Sai at a very young age, and the ghost had come to be one of two friends that he had. The other was Fujisaki Akari. Now, not only had Shindou lost one out of his small social circle, but he had also been given a taste of what it was to not be despised by almost everybody else his age. It was all right having friends who were his parents' friends, but they mostly cared about him as some cute child, with no real depth to the relationship. Anyway, there was something special about being with people his own age. It seemed right. With Sai, he could pretend they were the same age- mostly because of Sai's childish nature.

Without Sai, Shindou knew that he would not be able to stand being in his own town. He would not be able to handle being alone all the time. He would not be able to handle being constantly teased at school. But most of all, he would not be able to handle the loss of the game he now loved. He knew he could never teach Akari.

The question was, what to do about it? He couldn't ask to stay with the Touya's forever. That was not only rude, but he was already beginning to miss his own parents. But there was no good reason for his family to move to Tokyo. He couldn't insist that they leave their family home just so he could play go. And though he knew his parents had some idea of the state of his social life, he didn't think they quite understood just how bad the situation was.

Luckily for Shindou, Touya Meijin had already come up with a solution. He did this by using the one thing that Shindou constantly overlooked- his medical condition. Unbeknownst to both Shindou and Touya, the ER nurse who had stopped to help when Shindou fainted on the street had given the Meijin a recommendation for a doctor who could properly diagnose Shindou's condition. Shindou himself had completely dismissed the doctor' appointment he had been made to go to. He was aware that the Touya's worried about him, but didn't see any real value in understanding _what_ was wrong with him, when he couldn't see any clear thing that could be _done_ about it.

He couldn't have been more wrong. He did not know it yet, but Shindou Hikaru would not have to leave Tokyo. The day that Shindou was supposed to return home was actually the day that Shindou's parents would arrive in Tokyo and take him to a temporary apartment that the family would be staying in while they searched for a more permanent place to live. After the Meijin had explained to Shindou's parents about the doctor's diagnosis, they had been more than happy to go anywhere where their son could receive proper treatment.

And so, it was with great sadness that Shindou greeted his three friends for what he thought would be the last time. He, along with Touya, Waya and Isumi, thought that Shindou would be leaving the next day. Shindou, Waya and Isumi all hoped that perhaps the Meijin would allow them to all stay up the whole night to play go, if only for one last hurrah.

Touya Akira had other plans.

Touya plopped down into seiza in the midst of the small group, placing a plastic bag on the floor in front of them. "Today" he announced decisively, "we will not be playing go."

"We _what?_" Waya asked, horrified. He, Shindou and Isumi stared at Touya in shock. It had never crossed Waya's mind that Touya would be capable of doing anything other than go.

"That's right, we're not playing go. Instead, we're going to do something more exciting."

Dead silence. That something could possibly be more exciting than go was not a concept they were used to.

Touya took three boxes out of the bag. The first was a rather large box of matches. "We're going to need a lot of these," he explained briefly, placing them to the side. The next box was the game Risk. "This way, we won't have to wonder so much at who has troops where." He continued, putting it next to the matches. He noticed that Shindou was starting to smile. He knew where this was going. Touya pulled the last box out of the bag, placing it reverently in front of them. "_This_ is what we're going to play."

Waya and Isumi looked confused. "Monopoly?" Waya asked, completely lost in Touya's logic. "What's so special about Monopoly?"

"It's the way we play it." Shindou said, unwrapping the box. He turned to Touya. "Do you have any extra dice? It would help determine who wins."

In Waya and Isumi's opinion, the two boys were being way too calm about the last few minutes, which didn't seem to make any sense.

Shindou grinned, spreading out the board. "Welcome to Monopoly, Sai style."

It was even better than their first game. They didn't know exactly what made it so wonderful, whether it be the rules more set in stone, or the addition of two more players, or even the sentimental christening of the game being played "Sai-style", but this particular game of Monopoly was even better than their very first game of go. Waya and Isumi caught on pretty quickly, though Isumi almost ran in search of the fire extinguisher the first time Touya set one of Shindou's hotels on fire, and Waya was thoroughly confused when he was told that he had unfortunately broken the law and so was banished for forty years to the desolate lands known as the logo in the center of the board.

After figuring out how the game worked, Isumi, after becoming a powerful politician, managed to set an entire corner of the board on fire, scorching the floor underneath, while Waya snuck out of banishment, became an outlaw, robbed the bank, then held ransom Shindou's playing piece until Shindou agreed to turn over half of his armed forces to fight on Waya's behalf. Shindou managed to win his troops back after an inspiring speech about loyalty, which would have been quite eloquent, if he hadn't passed out halfway through.

It was one of the most childish things they had done in several years, but not one of them minded.

The game finally ended when the Meijin burst into the room, having received a call from a neighbor who had come to the conclusion that the house was on fire after seeing smoke coming out of one of the windows.

Apparently, it would be the last time they would play Monopoly at Touya's house.

"But why would you do that in the first place?" The Meijin asked, rubbing at the scorch mark they had left on his floor.

"Well," said Touya sheepishly, digging nervously into the floor with his foot, "I wanted to give Shindou a proper send-off, and this seemed like a good way."

"Send-off? Why would you need to send him off, he's not leaving." The Meijin said, confused.

His words were met with silence.

"I'm not leaving?" Shindou finally burst out with, staring at the Meijin in shock.

"Is he staying here?" Touya asked.

"What about his parents?" Isumi wondered.

"Can he become an Insei?" Waya demanded.

The Meijin pressed his fingers to his forehead. "I told you two at dinner yesterday. Shindou's family is moving to Tokyo so his condition can be properly treated."

There was a collective "ohhh" among the four boys as they put the pieces together. Then they stood in silence until the full meaning of the Meijin's words sunk in.

Shindou was torn between being thrilled about staying in Tokyo and being sad that he would most likely never see his hometown again.

Touya was torn about whether he should be more excited that he would have less to worry about in terms of Shindou's health or that he would not lose his chosen rival.

Waya was torn between happiness that he wouldn't lose his newest friend and apprehension that not only would Shindou inevitably surpass him but also that spending time with Shindou would mean that he also had to spend time with Touya.

Isumi was simply thrilled without any emotional indecision because Isumi had more of life figured out than the three other boys and so he had his priorities set in the right place.

Somewhere high above, looking down from where he had found himself after being disconnected from his goban, Sai smiled. He turned to the board in front of him, studying the game.

"I told you he'd be all right." Torajiro said from his place across the board from his old master. "Things like this always work out. They'll pursue the hand of god together. And then after them, someone else will. And someone after that."

"I know," Sai said, looking down again. "Sometimes I wish I could be there to see it, though."

Torajiro laughed. "Don't we all." He hit his master over the head with his fan, pointing to the stone he had placed while Sai was lost in his revels. "It's your move, Sai."

Chapter 12: Epilogue

Shindou tapped his fan against the board, making his opponent jump. One board over, Touya turned away from his discussion long enough to roll his eyes. Count on Shindou to use intimidation, though it could be argued that Touya's almost trademark stare could also count as intimidation.

Finally at a loss of what to do, Shindou's opponent bowed her head in defeat. "I have lost." She said sadly.

"Thank you for the game." Shindou replied. He pointed his fan at a portion of the board. "This is why you lost." He began.

It had been five years since Shindou had permanently moved to Tokyo. At sixteen, he had been in the pro world for a little over four years. He and Touya had become known as the beginning of the new wave of strong go players, followed closely by several of Shindou's old friends from his Insei days.

Shindou had risen quite quickly through the ranks of the pros and, had it not been for a long absence due to his actually fulfilling Touya's worst nightmare and falling the wrong way off a small bridge after passing out, he would have been challenging more of the upper Dans.

As for his illness, it had become so slight that no one really knew it existed anymore. Sometimes weeks went by without an incident. Shindou's condition was so little known that it had caused great excitement when, after their first official match, Touya carried his defeated opponent all the way down to the first floor, his only explanation being a very well-rehearsed "It's Ok, he does that."

Though Waya had never really gotten to like Touya, he did eventually stop downright despising him, even after Touya passed undefeated through the pro exams, leaving Waya behind for one last year of training while watching Touya, Shindou and Isumi pass before him into the pro world. Waya had since gained a rival of his own- another Insei named Ochi, who seemed to mercilessly take out his anger on his normally inferior opponents, as if it was their fault that he had not passed the pro exam on his first try.

Waya and Isumi had never managed to learn the identity of Shindou's go tutor. They knew his name was Sai, since Shindou had been just as secretive when asked about the name of his Monopoly game as he was when questioned about his teaching. Other than a name, they had nothing. They learned to live with it, occasionally testing the border of the knowledge that Touya and Shindou claimed they would take beyond the grave. For some reason the two boys had always laughed when they said that, confusing their friends even further.

Shindou sat next to Touya's board, helping him clear the stones.

"Recreate it for me?" he asked briefly.

Touya took the stones and began working through his game. Shindou stared at it in silence, following the intricate train of thought. It was obvious that Touya was much more advanced than his opponent, effortlessly weaving out of every trap. When Touya was most of the way through the game, Shindou put up his hand, telling Touya to stop.

They looked for a few moments at the last few moves that Touya had placed. Shindou put his finger on one of Touya's stone, tapping it.

"Look Touya, it's Sai."

Touya smiled sadly. "Yes. I still see him sometimes. In my go, that is. I saw him in yours, too. During the last game we played."

They sat in silent memory of their lost friend. Then Shindou lifted his fan - so similar to Sai's - and whacked Touya on the head.

"Ow! What was that for?" Touya objected, rubbing his head.

"That was for this idiotic move right here." Shindou replied, pointing to an earlier stone. "What were you thinking?"

"There was a very complicated plan that I was going to develop with that stone!" Touya said, his blush giving away his lie. "Really, it was going to be a really, totally amazing plan."

"Sure it was." Shindou replied. "Maybe you were planning for this sorry excuse for a move here."

"That is a perfectly acceptable place to play a stone! Anyway, I saw part of your game; you made a terrible mistake towards the end! You wouldn't have won if you didn't lower yourself to petty intimidation!"

Several people shushed them. The two teenagers had been pros long enough for everyone to understand when a shouting match was about to begin.

Shindou, still glaring, dragged Touya out of the room, determined to finish their argument.

Waya sighed, turning back to his own game. His opponent - a new pro named Shouji – watched the two older pros leave the room with a questioning look on his face. Waya grinned.

"It's OK," he said, "they do that."


End file.
